KABUL: Pakistan's military killed at least 70 militants in strikes along the border with Afghanistan early Sunday, targeting what it described as hideouts of Pakistani militants it blamed for recent attacks inside the country, the deputy interior minister said. Kabul rejected the claim.
Talal Chaudhry, Pakistan's deputy interior minister, offered no evidence for his claim in an interview with Geo News that at least 70 militants were killed in the strikes. Pakistan's state-run media later reported that militant fatalities jumped to 80.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement that "various civilian areas" in the provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika in eastern Afghanistan were hit, including a religious madrassa and multiple homes. The statement called the strikes a violation of Afghanistan's airspace and sovereignty.
Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on X the attacks "killed and wounded dozens, including women and children." He said Pakistan's claim of killing 70 militants was "inaccurate."
Mawlawi Fazl Rahman Fayyaz, the provincial director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society in Nangarhar province, said 18 people were killed and several others wounded.
Clearing rubble and burying the dead
Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul to protest the Pakistani strikes. In a statement, the ministry said protecting Afghanistan's territory is the Islamic Emirate's "Sharia responsibility" and warned that Pakistan would be responsible for the consequences of such attacks.
On Sunday, villagers cleared rubble in Nangarhar following airstrikes, while mourners prepared for funerals of those killed. Habib Ullah, a local tribal elder, said those killed in the strikes were not militants. "They were poor people who suffered greatly. Those killed were neither (the) Taliban, nor military personnel, nor members of the former government. They lived simple village lives," he told The Associated Press.
Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that the military conducted "intelligence-based, selective operations" against seven camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and its affiliates. He said an affiliate of the Islamic State group was also targeted.
Tarar said Pakistan "has always strived to maintain peace and stability in the region," but added that the safety and security of Pakistani citizens remained a top priority.
Pakistan blames Afghans for suicide bombings
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan's Taliban. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.
Hours before the Pakistani strikes, a suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in the border district of Bannu in Pakistan's northwest, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel. Pakistan's military warned after the attack that it would not "exercise any restraint" and that operations against those responsible would press on.
Another suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle last week into the wall of a security post in Bajaur district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, killing 11 soldiers and a child. Pakistani authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.
Tarar said Pakistan had "conclusive evidence" that the recent attacks, including a suicide bombing that targeted a Shiite mosque in Islamabad and killed 31 worshippers earlier this month, were carried out by militants acting on the "behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers."
He said Pakistan had repeatedly urged Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to take verifiable steps to prevent militant groups from using Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan, but alleged that no substantive action had been taken. Tarar also asked the international community to press Afghanistan's Taliban authorities to uphold their commitments under the Doha agreement not to allow their soil to be used against other countries.
In Islamabad, security analyst Abdullah Khan said the Pakistani strikes suggest that Qatari, Turkish and even Saudi-led mediations have failed to resolve tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. "These strikes are likely to further escalate the situation," he said.
The Qatari-mediated ceasefire between the two countries came about after deadly border clashes in October, killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, at the time, conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.
The truce between Islamabad and Kabul has largely held, but several rounds of talks in Istanbul in November failed to produce a formal agreement, and relations remain strained.
